01 February 2009

Thomas A. Daschle waited nearly a month after being nominated to be secretary of health and human services before informing Barack Obama that he had not paid years of back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a wealthy New York investor

Daschle, one of Obama's earliest and most ardent campaign supporters, paid $140,000 to the U.S. Treasury on Jan. 2 and about two days later informed the White House and the Senate Finance Committee, according to an account provided by his spokeswoman and confirmed by the Obama administration.

Although Daschle had known since June 2008 that he needed to correct his tax returns, he never expected the amount to be such a "jaw-dropping" sum and "thought it was being taken care of" by his accountant, spokeswoman Jenny Backus said.

A month?

Daschle spent 1979-2005 in either the House or Senate. 26 years on the Hill and he didn't think $140K was important enough to mention before then?

In this economy?

However much truth to it there may be, no one is going to accept "I thought my accountant was taking care of it" as an explanation. Don't know about you, but a "correction" a fraction of that size would have me either in jail or in whatever circle of audit hell the IRS saw fit to put me.

Obama's team is clearly responsible for proper vetting, but it's a mighty tough thing to do when the vet-ee forgets to talk about the pile of taxes he forgot to pay. And Daschle has no excuse for forgetting something else: this isn't about him, it's about the credibility of the administration. Whatever happens, he can go right back and snuggle up to the health care industry--where he's been for years. Obama now needs to try and navigate the laundry list of calamities before him with the egg ol' tax dodge Tommy threw on his face.

If this were anyone else, his ass would be--and still should be--gone.